OCT. 29 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In televised comments, Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan accused some state prosecutors and police of being corrupt and having links to criminal gangs. Political commentators said Mr Sargsyan’s unusually strong comments could be political and timed for a presidential election set for Feb. 2013.
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(News report from Issue No. 111, published on Nov. 2 2012)
OCT. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – An appeal court in Uzbekistan upheld accusations from the financial police of tax evasion by UzCarlsberg, the Uzbek subsidiary of Danish brewer Carlsberg, local media reported. Production at UzCarlsberg, which employs 400 people, has ceased since mid-June. Western businesses have previously complained that the Uzbek authorities pressure successful businesses through tax claims.
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(News report from Issue No. 109, published on Oct. 19 2012)
OCT. 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gulnara Karimova, the 40-year-old daughter of Uzbek president, leads a glitzy lifestyle. In September, she released a new pop song and this month she launched her own perfume.
Now, though, Ms Karimova has been indirectly linked to a money laundering investigation in Switzerland that focuses on four Uzbek nationals.
Publicly accessible documents in France, unearthed by Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyra and reported on by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, showed that on at least one occasion Ms Karimova co-signed a document for property in the south of France with Alisher Ergashev, one of two Uzbek men detained in Geneva in July by investigators.
It’s also emerged that another of the Uzbek nationals being investigated in Switzerland is Gayane Avakyan, an ethnic Armenian woman closely linked to Ms Karimova.
Aside from the Swiss investigation, Ms Avakyan is also one of the main protagonists in a deal Swedish prosecutors are looking into. In the 2007/8 deal, Swedish telecoms company TeliaSonera bought an Uzbek 3G mobile licence from Gibraltar-registered Takilant. TeliaSonera has denied any wrong-doing, but Swedish prosecutors are investigating irregularities.
Both the investigations, and Ms Karimova’s glitzy lifestyle, continue.
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(News report from Issue No. 109, published on Oct. 19 2012)
OCT. 12 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – British police detained Maksim Bakiyev, son of former Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, after the US issued an extradition request. The US wants to prosecute Mr Bakiyev for financial crimes. Since a revolution in 2011, Kyrgyzstan has wanted the Bakiyevs sent back to Bishkek to face various charges.
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(News report from Issue No. 109, published on Oct. 19 2012)
OCT. 3 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s parliament has thrown out Gular Ahmadova, the MP filmed trying to organise a bribe from a businessman in exchange for a seat in the legislature, media reported. The video, filmed in 2005, has shaken the Azerbaijani political establishment. Ms Ahmadova had been a relatively prominent figure in the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan party.
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(News report from Issue No. 107, published on Oct. 5 2012)
SEP. 26 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani opposition newspaper, Azadliq, published online a video allegedly showing a member of parliament, Gular Ahmadova, discussing the bribe a businessman would have to pay to win a seat in the national legislature. The prosecutor-general has pledged to investigate the allegations.
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(News report from Issue No. 106, published on Sep. 28 2012)
SEP. 26 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors in Sweden have opened an investigation into alleged bribery and money laundering by TeliaSonera, a Swedish telecoms company with businesses across the world, linked to a deal in 2007 to buy a 3G licence in Uzbekistan, media reported.
In the 2007 deal, TeliaSonera bought the licence from a Gibraltar registered company called Takilant for $352m. The Swedish media has speculated that the real owners of Takilant may have had close links to Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan.
TeliaSonera, in which the Swedish government owns 37%, has denied the allegations. The media, though, reported that the company’s CEO, Lars Nyberg, has said he doesn’t know whether people other than the nominal owner of Talikant benefited from the deal or how it came to own the 3G licence in the first place. Swedish media focused on TeliaSonera’s role in the saga, but it also throws more light on how business is conducted in Uzbekistan. And it’s not pretty.
Russian mobile operator MTS is currently fighting allegations of tax avoidance in Uzbekistan and, separately, Swiss authorities have opened a money laundering investigation into four unnamed Uzbek citizens. Corruption allegations over the TeliaSonera/Takilant deal add to this picture.
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(News report from Issue No. 106, published on Sep. 28 2012)
SEP. 6 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Switzerland have launched a money laundering probe into four unnamed Uzbek nationals, the eurasianet.org website reported. Eurasianet.org quoted the Swiss authorities saying that it had arrested two of the Uzbeks. Major Uzbek businesses have had well-documented links to Switzerland.
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(News report from Issue No. 104, published on Sep. 14 2012)
AUG. 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev asked his political party, the Social Democrats, to try to form a new governing coalition in parliament after the collapse last week of a four-party group over corruption allegations, media reported. The Social Democrats have 15 days to form a government.
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(News report from Issue No. 103, published on Aug. 31 2012)
AUG. 14 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s PM, Omurbek Babanov, has denied allegations that he accepted a racehorse as a bribe in exchange for granting government contracts to a construction firm, media reported. The opposition wants a no-confidence motion against Mr Babanov, which could collapse the ruling coalition.
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(News report from Issue No. 101, published on Aug. 17 2012)